Louisiana Expungement and Housing: Renting an Apartment With a Record

The Background Check That Kills Your Application

You found the apartment. You filled out the application. You paid the non-refundable screening fee. Then the landlord pulled your background check and rejected you because of an arrest from years ago — one that was dismissed, one you already served time for, one you thought was behind you.

This is one of the most common triggers that sends people searching for information about expungement in Louisiana. The rental housing market has become heavily automated: most property management companies run every applicant through a third-party tenant screening service like TransUnion SmartMove, RentPrep, or AppFolio. These services pull from the same criminal record databases that show your Louisiana arrest or conviction, and many landlords use blanket rejection policies for any criminal history.

The frustrating part is that Louisiana law does not currently prohibit landlords from considering criminal records in rental decisions the way some cities and states do. Louisiana has no statewide "ban the box" law for housing. That means your only real defense against automated screening rejections is to remove the record from the databases those services search — and that requires an expungement.

What an Expungement Actually Does for Housing

Under La. C. Cr. P. Article 972, an expungement removes your arrest, conviction, fingerprints, and disposition records from public access. Once the order is signed and processed, the Louisiana State Police update the state criminal database, and the record no longer appears on standard commercial background checks.

For housing purposes, this means:

Standard tenant screening services will no longer see the record. The sealed record is removed from the public-facing databases that companies like TransUnion, CoreLogic, and National Tenant Network pull from.

You can legally deny the arrest or conviction. On rental applications that ask "Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a crime?", you are legally authorized to answer "No" for any arrest or conviction that has been expunged. This protection comes from the expungement statute itself — the legal fiction is that the event never occurred.

Landlords cannot hold a sealed record against you. If a landlord somehow discovers an expunged record (through an outdated cached report, for example), they cannot legally use it as a basis for denial. Under Article 974, any entity that discloses an expunged record after receiving proper notice is subject to civil liability.

The Timing Problem

The gap between when a judge signs your expungement order and when your record actually disappears from tenant screening databases can be significant. The Louisiana State Police typically take 30 to 60 days to process the order and update their repository. But private background check companies may take even longer — some continue reporting sealed records for months because they rely on cached data that updates on a different cycle.

This creates a dangerous window where you are technically expunged but still getting rejected on apartment applications.

There are two things you can do about this:

Carry a certified copy of your expungement order. If a landlord or property manager pulls a report that still shows the sealed record, you can present the certified court order as proof that the record has been legally sealed. Not all landlords will accept this (some have rigid automated screening), but many will.

Send certified-mail notice to screening companies. Under Article 974, you can mail a certified copy of your signed expungement order to any background check company that is still reporting the record. Once they receive formal notice via certified mail with return receipt, they are legally prohibited from disclosing it. If they continue reporting it, they face civil damages under Louisiana law and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.

If You Cannot Afford the $550 Filing Fee

The standard expungement filing fee is $550, which is a lot of money when you are also trying to scrape together a security deposit and first month's rent. Louisiana offers two fee reduction options:

District Attorney fee waiver: If your case ended in a dismissal, acquittal, or DA refusal (and you have no prior felony convictions), you can request a Certification of Fee Waiver from the DA's office, which eliminates the $50 DA fee.

In Forma Pauperis (IFP) filing: Under Article 983(L), if you receive SNAP, SSI, or Medicaid, or your income falls below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, you can submit a notarized IFP affidavit asking the judge to waive the court fees. The judge has discretion to waive the Clerk of Court ($200) and Sheriff ($50) portions. The State Police fee ($250) can also be waived unless you have any prior felony conviction.

Public Housing and Section 8

Public housing authorities (PHAs) and Section 8 voucher programs run their own background checks and have their own admission policies. Federal law gives PHAs broad discretion to deny applicants with criminal records, but it also prohibits blanket bans. HUD guidance directs housing authorities to evaluate criminal history on a case-by-case basis, considering factors like the nature of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and evidence of rehabilitation.

An expungement strengthens your position in these evaluations significantly. While PHAs may have access to broader records than private landlords, the expungement order itself serves as formal state-level recognition that your record has been evaluated and sealed — a strong indicator of rehabilitation in any case-by-case review.

Next Steps

If a housing rejection is what brought you here, the priority is to determine whether your record is eligible for expungement. The Louisiana Expungement & Record Sealing Guide includes an eligibility decision tree, the full filing process, and a post-order enforcement checklist for clearing your record from the screening companies that landlords rely on.

See more Louisiana guides →